22nd BG

At 0700 on 8 Dec 1941, less than 18 hours after the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, the 22nd Bomb Group, the Red Raiders, took off in B-26 medium bombers from Langley field, VA headed for Muroc, CA to fly shore patrol. My father was a crew chief on one of those B-26s in the 33rd squadron. From Muroc, they boarded the airplanes and flight crews onto ships and sailed to Oahu. At Hickam Field, they reassembled the planes and island hopped to Australia.

The 22nd BG was one of the first units to take offensive action against the enemy. From from bases in northern Australia, they flew bomb missions without fighter escort against Japanese bases and shipping around New Guinea and the surrounding waters. As the war continued, they island hopped toward Japan while also moving from B-26s to B-25s to B-24s bombers.

The posts under 22nd BG constitute a new initiative to document the journey my father took through WWII with the 22nd Bomb Group, 33rd Squadron. His photos and WWII memorabilia were destroyed in a fire. Many thanks in advance to the 22nd Bomb Group Association for their help and for allowing me to scan photos from their book.

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Hello, I am researching and writing the WW2 history of the Marine Corps squadron I served with in the 1970s – VMFA-251. During the war it was known as VMO and later VMF-251. In January 1945 the squadron began operations out of Guiuan Airfield on Samar. An eyewitness account I have from one of the squadron’s pilots recalls the crash of a B-24 upon takeoff on or about 21 January 1945. The best I can determine is that the 22nd was there at the time. Do you have any information concerning the time period?